


Promises to keep

by twilightshards



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Don't worry, Gen, M/M, and also xemnas doesn't deserve any kind of redemption, but he needed saving not redemption, fight me, he was a victim ok, how Isa should've been saved, i will die on this hill, look kh3 im happy you brought my boy back, xion gets her moment to shine too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21696574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightshards/pseuds/twilightshards
Summary: “Isa is gone,” he said, his voice nothing more than a low hiss, “Smothered by the darkness inside him.”“Liar. I know Isa’s still in there.”
Relationships: Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Promises to keep

Lea found himself standing on a fractured platform. Stained glass with missing pieces, creating a shape reminiscent of a crescent moon. He could see Isa’s face in the glass, but his eyes were yellow, and the image was missing several pieces. It was though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.

Isa’s heart… he was inside of Isa’s heart. Somehow he had done it. He’d been about to attack Xemnas, but… his eyes had caught Isa’s instead. His keyblade had emitted some sort of strange light and then he’d ended up in here. The power of waking… was this what Sora had been talking about? Did that mean he could wake Isa’s heart? Only one way to find out.

He glanced around. It was dark and eerily quiet, but as he began to slowly walk along the narrow platform, he could hear a sound from the darkness. Like someone was crying. Lea’s heart started beating faster and he began walking at a quicker pace. He wanted to run, but he was worried he’d fall off of the platform and into the expansive darkness below, and so he kept to walking.

At the end of the platform he could see a hunched over figure dressed in the black Organization-coat. The hood was up, and the figure had their back to Lea. Their shoulders were shaking, and harsh, half-muffled sobs were coming from them. Lea slowed down a little, hesitating.

“…Isa?”

The figure instantly stopped sobbing and their head snapped to the side, seeming to look at Lea from under the hood. He couldn’t see a face though, just a dark void. He took a step closer, dread and hope and anticipation all creating a jumble of dizzying feelings inside of him.

“Isa, is that you…?”

The figure slowly rose to their feet, head lowered, and once they were standing upright, they let the hood fall down. Blue hair streaked with silver was all that he saw at first, before the figure lifted his head. His eyes were deep pools of molten gold, his scar was jagged and stretched grotesquely across his face, and when he opened his mouth to speak Lea could see sharp fangs protruding from his mouth. He looked like a wild animal.

“Isa is gone,” he said, his voice nothing more than a low hiss, “Smothered by the darkness inside him.” The voice sounded more like Xehanort than Isa, but Lea could still hear something of his old friend there.

Lea snorted and stepped even closer. “Liar. I know Isa’s still in there.”

The creature let out a sound that might’ve been a laugh, but it sounded more like the shriek of a wounded animal. “He’s gone! Because you abandoned him!” he accused, voice rising higher and higher until he was practically screaming, “You left him all alone in the dark and look what’s become of his heart! It’s broken! _You_ broke it!”

Lea’s expression softened and in contrast to the other, his voice remained low, gentle. “I know,” he said, “I failed you, but I’m here now. I’m going to bring you home.”

“You’re too late!” the creature howled, sounding like he was in pain now. “You can’t save him! Not anymore!”

The claymore materialized in his hand, seeming to drag the other with him as he rushed at Lea who barely had time to summon his keyblade to block the attack.

Their weapons clashed loudly against one another. The claymore bore down hard onto the keyblade, relentless in its attempt to break through, to hurt him. Lea was just as relentless, though. His arms ached from the strain of holding his attacker back, but he refused to give up. He would never give up on Isa again and that was a damn promise.

“I won’t fight you, Isa,” he said, voice still calm, though with an obvious strained edge to it, “You can beat me up a little if it’ll make you feel better, but I won’t fight you. I won’t.”

The other seemed to falter a bit at that before the claymore bore down even harder. “Why?!” he screamed and this time his voice sounded much more like Isa, “He tried to kill you, he hated you, he wanted you _dead_!”

“That wasn’t _you_ , Isa. That was him, that was Xehanort! He brainwashed you, turned you into his puppet! He put that scar on your face and gave you that damn weapon to control you!” Lea’s voice raised an octave as he pressed back even harder against the claymore. His energy was starting to fade somewhat, but he refused to give in.

“Come back to me, Isa. I know you can, you’re strong, stronger than him.” Lea wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but his words seemed to make the gold drain out of the other’s eyes, slowly, but surely. He smiled as he could feel some of the resistance let up.

“Do you remember our promise? We were laying on the rooftop outside your window. You were telling me about the stars, and I asked you if you thought we’d always be together…” He used his free hand to reach over and grab one of the other’s, “and you took my hand and said that you promised we would.”

At this point, the struggle ceased almost entirely. The other hung his head, shaking his head to himself. “Isa is… gone,” he said, but he didn’t sound so sure anymore, “Smothered by…”

“Isa, I’m so sorry for everything,” Lea interrupted and grasped even harder at Isa’s hand. “For leaving you behind, for not realising what was going on with you, for not… for not protecting you from him. I’m sorry.”

The claymore suddenly dematerialized and Isa fell onto his knees on the ground, clutching his head in his hands, shoulders shaking again. “Stop it,” he whispered, “Stop it. I don’t deserve it.”

Lea dismissed the keyblade from his hand and crouched down next to Isa. Without a single moment’s hesitation he wrapped his arms around him. Isa tried to push him away at first, but Lea refused to let go and eventually he could feel Isa’s arms wrapping around him in return as he sobbed against Lea’s shoulder.

All around them the platform they were on began to repair itself, piece by piece.

“I’m taking you home, Isa,” Lea murmured.

Isa finally looked up at him, brilliant teal eyes meeting emerald green, and smiled. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

With that his body began to evaporate into bright balls of light that seemed to repair the last bits of the platform. Once complete again, the stained glass now portrayed Isa, the real Isa, and… Lea too. He stared in awe at the sight, at the beautiful crescent moon adorning Isa’s piece of the platform and the bright sun adorning his own.

“Isa…” he whispered, tears falling from his eyes.

A keyhole appeared in the middle of the platform and Lea instinctively knew what to do. He summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the keyhole. A beam of light shot out of it, unlocking it and…

He was back in the real world. Back on the battlefield. What had felt like quite some time appeared to have been no more than a few seconds in the real world. Or he’d probably be dead already. Xemnas was still ready to strike him down, but something was different this time around. 

Isa was on his knees in front of Xemnas, both of his hands gripping around the blade that Xemnas had clearly intended to end Lea’s existence with.

“I won’t… let you hurt him,” Isa got out between gritted teeth, clearly in pain from holding onto Xemnas’ blade.

“Your heart was consumed,” Xemnas said, disbelief evident in his voice, “How did you…?”

“Isa…” Lea gasped as his eyes filled with tears again.

That caught Xemnas’ attention and he glowered at the redhead. “ _You_. Of course. I should have known you would find a way to dash our plans again. No matter. We have plenty of darknesses to replenish our ranks with. We can do without one little puppet who should have learned his place a long time ago.”

With that he wrenched the blade out of Isa’s hand, causing him to gasp loudly in pain. “I have no use for you any longer, _Saix_. Your termination from Organization XIII will now be put into effect.” He raised his blade again.

Lea used what little strength he had left in his battered body to throw himself at Isa’s back, shoving him aside before rolling on top of him to shield him from the incoming attack. He closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable.

Instead he heard a strange sound – like metal slicing through air. Lea opened his eyes and turned his head to see what it was. The sight made his eyes widen to an almost comical degree.

Xemnas was on his knees, the blade gone from his hand. Behind him stood the small figure who had been fighting Kairi earlier, having just ran Xemnas straight through with the keyblade in their hand. 

“Hah… I suppose… I should not be surprised,” Xemnas rasped out, sounding oddly amused by the whole thing. Bits of his being was beginning to break off and float into the air, a sure sign that he was fading from existence.

Lea rolled off of Isa and turned his wide eyes on the small figure. “Who… are you…?”

Slowly, the figure lowered her hood. Black hair and big blue eyes. Lea’s head suddenly felt like it was going to split open with all the memories that came flooding in. The memories of him and Roxas on the clock tower, except, it hadn’t just been the two of them. There had been a third person there. A girl. _This_ girl.

“Xion!”

“Far too much trouble than you were ever worth,” Xemnas said as he turned to glance at Xion, his voice growing weaker by the second, “but… you have impressed me. Well done.”

Xion’s face was unreadable as she looked at Xemnas, watching quietly as he finally faded.

Once he was gone, Lea wasn’t sure who he wanted to see to first, but fortunately – he didn’t have to make a choice. Xion came stumbling over to him and Isa, her eyes filling with tears before she threw herself into his open arms. The tears in Lea’s own eyes finally spilled over and ran down his cheeks as he embraced her.

Next to him he could feel Isa sitting up and he broke apart from Xion for a second just so that he could draw Isa into the hug as well. Isa seemed surprised by it, but he leaned into Lea’s side all the same. Their moment was interrupted only when they heard another voice.

“Hey, you got room for one more?”

Three pair of eyes snapped up from their embrace at the sound of that familiar voice. Standing there was…

“Roxas…!”

He was smiling, but he also looked like he was on the verge of tears. Without another word he fell to his knees in front of them and was drawn into the hug as well.

“You’re all here,” Lea murmured, choked up as he held his little family close, “You’re all really here.”

This time, he was not letting them go. Not ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo I was happy that Isa was re-completed and all that, but KH3 did a really poor job (in my opinion) to show that he was a victim of Xehanort's. He should've been saved like Terra was saved, because they were both vessels. Instead he doesn't even act possessed through like all of KH3 except during the last fight? It was so weird.  
> Anyway, I've been reading a bunch of KH3 meta and someone brought up how Lea should've used the power of waking on Isa, and I freaking agree so hard so here's my attempt at that... It's been forever since I wrote KH fic, but I am back babey and I will FIX CANON (or y'know, write self-indulgent sappy shit like this :)))  
> I also really just wanted Xemnas to die earlier than he did without some last monologue that seemed like it was supposed to make us sympathise with him. Fuck that guy.


End file.
